#183---CLE @ BOS, 7/15/1998

Bartolo Colon v. Pedro Martinez, and it lived up to what it sounds like it should have entailed. They both pitched complete games, with the Sox getting the winning homer from their #9 hitter, Midre Cummings, leading off the fifth. Colon struck out six and walked two; Martinez struck out nine and walked two. Cleveland only got two runners into scoring position, both times just and second and with two outs (in the second and the eighth).

#182---CLE @ CHA, 5/26/1997

I was really excited about this Memorial Day game, which was the first meeting between the Indians and White Sox in 1997, which meant it was the first time Albert Belle played against his former team. I wrote “BONG, BONG, BONG” on the top of the sheet which now would make me think that Bill Lee was showing up rather than Albert Belle, but oh well. I actually distinctly remember listening to the game on the radio in my parents car, although I don’t remember where we were going or explicitly remember keeping score while doing so, but I was.

Belle was 1-4, with an eighth inning single; the two players batting in front of him, Mike Cameron and Frank Thomas, hit back-to-back homers off Orel Hershiser in the first inning to tie the game, but the Indians put up a six-spot in the second and went on to win 10-4. Despite having allowed eight runs through two innings, Jaime Navarro was kept in to pitch seven (allowing a seventh run in that frame). I didn’t keep a pitch count here, but he made 117 pitches in this effort, which simply would not happen today.

I was confused by my notation for Alomar in the eighth, showing that he singled off reliever Matt Karchner, but then moved up to second on “P”, to third on “9” and scored on “P”. I know I was using one letter abbreviations when possible at this time, so “P” means passed ball, but the “9” would have meant the advancement occurred due to the #9 hitter’s at bat, which doesn’t make sense since Vizquel walked and Alomar was apparently already at second on the passed ball. B-R confirms this was an errant symbol; Alomar advanced to third on “1”, the fielder’s choice that Marquis Grissom hit into following Vizquel, then scored on a subsequent passed ball. So there were in fact two passed balls by  Jorge Fabregas in the inning; Fabregas had just come on as a pinch-hitter for Tony Pena in the seventh.

#181---TEX @ CLE, 5/18/1996

I’ve shared one of these 1996 games that I kept in a “B&B Statmaster” scorebook before; this was actually the first chronologically. There’s way too much clutter in the book to begin with, and I compounded by doing things like scoring both teams on one page with just a line between them, scrawling pitchers names in the bottom of the first scorebox they pitched to, drawing location arrows for every batted ball (even when self-evident from the scoring) and writing out “FLY” on every flyout. The score is hard to make out, so I gave myself a test before confirming at Baseball-Reference – I have Texas with 1 in the first, 1 in the second, 2 in the seventh, and 2 in the eighth for 6 and Cleveland with 1 in the second and 2 in the third for a 6-3 final. This was correct, so at least I passed that test.

Darryl Hamilton hit a leadoff homer off Brian Anderson; Albert Belle homered for the Tribe in the second.

#180---CHN @ CLE, 3/7/2020

It’s hard to find much to write about recent spring training games, as the names that someday may be of interest are still largely unknown. But I don’t have a ton of 2020 scoresheets to choose from. Cleveland led 3-0 through six, but the Cubs posted crooked numbers in their last three at bats, rallying to win 8-5.